Hemingway Design: Making Places That Work for People

Walk along Margate's seafront and you can feel a town in the middle of reinvention. The Turner Contemporary gallery draws visitors from London and beyond. Independent shops have colonised the Old Town's narrow lanes. But scratch beneath the surface and the regeneration story is more nuanced, more contested, and more interesting than a simple tale of rising property values. At the centre of many of those conversations sits Hemingway Design, the studio founded by Wayne Hemingway and his partner Gerardine.

Wayne Hemingway first became known as the co-founder of Red or Dead, the fashion label that defined a certain strain of accessible, irreverent British style throughout the late 1980s and 1990s. When that chapter closed with the sale of the brand, Hemingway channelled his energy into a different kind of design practice, one rooted not in catwalks but in council estates, high streets and public housing. The result was Hemingway Design, a consultancy that has spent more than two decades asking a deceptively simple question: what happens when you put people at the heart of the design process?

A Practice Built on Social Purpose

Hemingway Design operates across architecture, urban planning, branding, product design and events, but the thread connecting all of it is social impact. The studio has worked on affordable housing schemes, helped regenerate neglected seaside towns, created festivals that celebrate local heritage, and developed brand identities for social enterprises. Its portfolio resists easy categorisation, which is part of the point. The team believes design should not be confined to specialists talking to other specialists. It should be a tool that communities can use to shape their own futures.

The studio's base in Margate is itself a statement. Rather than operating from a glossy London address, the team chose to root themselves in a town that exemplifies both the challenges and possibilities of coastal regeneration. Margate's story over the past fifteen years has been one of decline meeting creative ambition, and Hemingway Design has been an active participant, working on local projects while also drawing on lessons learned there for commissions across the UK.

Housing, Heritage and the High Street

One of the studio's best-known bodies of work involves housing. Hemingway Design collaborated with developers and housing associations to prove that affordable homes do not have to look or feel like afterthoughts. Projects such as the Staiths South Bank development in Gateshead demonstrated that design-led thinking could produce social housing with the same attention to detail, proportion and community space that is usually reserved for premium developments. The project won multiple awards and became a reference point for a generation of architects and planners rethinking the brief for public housing.

Heritage is another recurring theme. The studio has helped towns and cities rediscover their own stories, whether through wayfinding systems, brand identities for heritage trails, or large-scale public events. The Vintage Festival series, which ran at locations including Goodwood and various urban centres, brought together fashion, music, design and food under a banner that celebrated postwar British culture without descending into nostalgia. These events were designed to be inclusive, affordable and genuinely popular, attracting audiences that many cultural institutions struggle to reach.

"Good design should be available to everyone, not just the wealthy few. That principle runs through everything we do, from the homes we help build to the festivals we create."

Collaboration Over Ego

Hemingway Design's working method relies on collaboration. The studio frequently partners with architects, local authorities, community groups and universities. Internal teams tend to be small and multidisciplinary, with individuals expected to contribute across different stages of a project. A designer might find themselves conducting community workshops one week and refining a visual identity the next. This breadth demands a particular kind of flexibility, along with genuine comfort in working with people who are not designers.

The culture inside the studio reflects its external values. Hierarchy is relatively flat. Ideas are tested through conversation and prototyping rather than lengthy presentations. There is a strong emphasis on research, particularly on understanding the social and economic context of any given project before reaching for a pen or a screen. The team reads widely, visits sites repeatedly, and treats listening as a core design skill.

Margate as a Living Laboratory

Being based in Margate gives the studio a daily reminder of why its work matters. The town is a place where creative ambition coexists with real deprivation, where a thriving gallery scene sits alongside some of the most disadvantaged wards in Kent. Hemingway Design engages with this complexity rather than glossing over it. Staff are encouraged to participate in local life, to understand the town not as a backdrop but as a community with its own rhythms, tensions and aspirations.

For anyone considering joining the studio, this context is important. Hemingway Design is not a place where you will work on abstract briefs disconnected from real consequences. The projects are grounded, the stakeholders are diverse, and the measure of success extends well beyond aesthetic quality. The studio looks for people who find that prospect exciting rather than daunting, people who believe that design has a role to play in making places fairer, more liveable and more interesting.

Looking Ahead

As conversations around levelling up, net zero housing and cultural placemaking continue to shape UK policy, Hemingway Design's approach feels increasingly relevant. The studio is growing its work in sustainable design, exploring how circular economy principles can be applied to everything from product development to urban planning. New commissions are taking the team to towns and cities across the country, though Margate remains the anchor.

It is a studio that proves design can be both serious and accessible, rigorous and warm. For those drawn to work that connects creativity with social purpose, Hemingway Design offers something rare: a practice where the question "who is this for?" always comes before "how does it look?"